With His Back to the Sun
by Anime-Yasha
Summary: Another random NejiTen one shot. Aoi EDITED


**With His Back to the Sun**

**By: Aoi**

**Edit:** Okay, I went through and edited all my NejiTenten fics for Neji's B-day. Happy B-day Neji!

Disclaimer: don't own Naruto, if I did Neji and Tenten would be married by now.

Summary: Another random Neji/Ten one shot. Aoi

A/N: Aoi: I was on Naruto central when I got the idea for this fic. Kinda based on the song Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam, by Nirvana. But song fics aren't allowed, and I'm gonna write one called Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam. This is just an idea that popped into my head so I had to write it down.

Tenten looked up at the red sky, though it was blurry through her tears. The sun was setting on the day of Rock Lee's funeral. Lots of people came, to pay their respects, but none of them knew how hard it was. She couldn't stand to see how some people laughed and talked, as if this was just some big party. (Aoi: yes people do that. It made me really mad at my grandpa's funeral when people did that. When I was crying and they were laughing.)It wasn't. It was her team mate, her best friend, Rock Lee's funeral.

Yes, all of this deeply upset her, but the thing that did so the most, was Neji. Cold, stoic, heartless Neji. Did he even care? _He sure didn't act like it,_ she thought bitterly, a new set of tears beginning to fall. He didn't cry, he didn't say anything, he wouldn't have come if she hadn't made him.

She looked up at the red sky again, shifting slightly. Her position in the tree she had been sitting in was becoming uncomfortable. She stiffened as she felt a chakra approaching.

"So, you are still here," a voice asked, lacking emotion.

She didn't reply, and he didn't take much notice, but instead, continued walking towards the edge of the cliff, that over looked one of Konoha's forests. He turned his head toward the sun, and then turned back around, facing her.

"Have I done something wrong?" he asked, his tone still emotionless.

Still no reply. He looked her straight in the eyes. Even without the byakugan, his eyes seemed to penetrate everything, not missing a single emotion, a movement, nothing.

He frowned "You didn't really expect me to cry did you?" he asked, scornfully.

Her muscles tensed.

"N-Neji, why?" she paused for a moment, trying to pull herself together and then continued. "He was your team mate, your rival, your friend, and yet you still can't… can't find it somewhere in your heart to feel the loneliness, that feeling that he will never return?"

This time she was the one who got no reply. She sighed and looked back to the sky. Only part of it was red now, the rest fading into the never-ending dark void of the night. Only broken by a few dim stars, just beginning to appear. She watched as the last rays of sun hit his back, casting a long shadow, like the last rays of hope upon her heart.

If he really didn't care about Lee, would he really even care about her? Was her love a lost cause? She looked at him again, with his back to the sun, standing tall, untouched by the misery of the others around him, untouched by all the sorrow, pain, and suffering in the world.

"Neji," she said as calmly as she could.

"Yes?"

"Neji, have you ever known what it's like to love?"

He paused a moment, "What are you getting at?"

"Not just love, like between a boy and a girl, but also between a brother and a sister, or… or a son and his mother." This was stupid. What was she saying?

"No, Tenten," he said quietly. "Not me."

"N-never? Not even when you where younger?" she tried again.

"Tenten," he said quietly. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I... I..." Why couldn't she say it? "I don't know. I... I was just wondering, how… how you can act like everything's okay, with all this. All the sadness, and pain. You sound like you don't care, but you do. Don't you?" She asked hopefully.

"No. But… never mind."

"But what?"

"If there's something you want to say to me, Tenten, say it. If there isn't, then I'm going home."

"But-" she lowered her head. It was now or never. "Neji, I... I l-love you," she managed to get out, but it was barely above a whisper, and she didn't think he heard her.

"Tenten," he said, his voice was quiet again. "I told you, I don't love." And with that, he began to walk home, the very last rays of the sun heating his back.

I'm sorry, Tenten. But I'm not ready to tell you how I feel. 

More tears fell as she watched him walk away. She didn't cry only because of what he said. No. He was in pain, not physically, but mentally. And he didn't know how to react. He had turned his back on the world. On hope. On life, almost. Just as he had turned his back to the sun.

**Fin**


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